Gaesati

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The Gaisaten ( Latin Gaesati , ancient Greek Γαισάται), also Gaesaten, were a Celtic tribe who lived in the Swiss Alps on the Rhône and who performed mercenary services for gold. Its name is derived from the Celtic * gaisa- / gaiso ( old Irish gae , Kymrian gwayw "spear"), which refers to the iron throwing spear of the Celts and is related to German Ger .

According to Polybios and Plutarch (Plutarch, Marc. 3,1) and Orosius 4,3,15, the name Gaesaten means "mercenary", which is probably due to the pseudo-etymology of γάξα ("treasure, sum of money") and ξητείν ("search" ) is due. Whether they were actually a Celtic tribe, as Strabo (5,1,6 and 10) assumes, or rather a warrior order, comparable to the Aquitanian soldurii from Caesarian times or the Old Irish Fianna , cannot be determined with certainty.

history

When the Celts in 225 BC BC invaded the Po Valley, the Insubrians and Boier hired Gaisatian mercenaries, whereupon their kings Konkolitanos (Κογκολιτάνος) and Aneroëstos (᾿Ανηρόεστος) raised a large army. In the Battle of Telamon , the Celts were defeated and Konkolitanos was captured, while Aneroëstos and the rest of his retinue committed collective suicide after escaping.

The striking thing about the Gaisats was that they stood completely naked in the front row before the battle and only wore a torc .

“The Gaisats, however, in their lust for fame and recklessness, threw off this clothing and stood in the front row of the armed forces, naked and only armed ... The appearance and movement of the naked men standing in the front row were also terrifying; they were characterized by their youthful full power and well-being. All those who formed the first meeting were adorned with gold necklaces and bracelets. When the Romans saw this, they were frightened ... "

- Polybios , 2.28.8-2.29.8

A second combat mission in 222 BC. BC at Clastidium on the side of the Insubrians also ended with a victory for the Romans. The Gaisaten leader Viridomarus was killed with his own hands by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus after a clue in the triumphal fasts .

Auxiliary and mercenary troops

In the Roman army there was during the Principate also auxiliary troops who Gaesatae were called and in the province of Raetia were recruited. One such vexillatio Retorum Gaesa (torum) was stationed in Scotland and another in Saldae in Africa . According to a communication from Appian (Rhomaika, Celt. 15), Caesar is said to have recruited a Gaesatian mercenary troop from the Alps ("Berggallier").

Strabo (XII 3.41) names a stretch of land near Bithynia in Galatia, land of the Gezatorix , the King of Gaesaten. This apparently describes the use of mercenary troops with the Galatians .

Alpine Germans / Alpine Celts

The triumphal fast of Marcellus over the Insubrians and Gaisats is the name given by the latter for the first time to Germanic peoples ( ... de Gallis Insubribus et Germanis ... ), which is viewed as a later paraphrase.

Since the Roman writer Livius described the Gaisati as a half-Germanic people ( gentes semigermanae ), the Germanist Rudolf Much put forward the thesis of the Alpine Germans, which was refuted by Hans Schmeja .

In Birkhan , on the other hand, the term "Alpenkelten" is used several times for the Gaesaten. He describes them as elite warriors organized in the manner of a man's union who, like the Fianna, had their own kingdom . He also finds it remarkable that the defeat at Telamon was inflicted on them, of all things, by the use of the surprising Roman throwing spears, where their name identifies them as "spearmen".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Sievers / Urban / Ramsl: Lexicon for Celtic Archeology. A – K and L – Z , pp. 581 f.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 1038 f.
  3. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 142.
  4. ^ Rudolf Much: The Gaesaten. In: Journal for German Antiquity and German Literature 69, 1932, pp. 17–46.
  5. ↑ Hans Schmeja: The Myth of the Alpine Germans , Vienna 1967.
  6. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 113 f.